Help have sick chicken and two dead not sure whats going on

[HK Bar Ranch]

About 3 months ago I purchased 4 Ameracuans (1 is a year old, 2 were 4 months old and 1 was 2 months old) I had them quarrentined for two weeks. The 2 mo bird started "pump jacking" its head like it was trying to breath and became very lethargic. I pulled the other girls out of that cage and transferred them to another coop. The little girl died the next day. I disinfected the coop she was in. After another week I put the 3 others into my main coop and run with my other 16 fully grown girls . Last week one of my silver laced wyandottes (shes 1 year old) exhibited the same symptoms and died the next day. She was "pump jacking" her head and had a raspy rattle when she tried to breath. Real lethargic and wouldnd eat. Now I have another Ameracuana thats 4 months old that has discharge out her nostrils, rattles when she breaths and has runny liquid and it puffed up. She is eating a bit and drinking a bit and it puffed up but drooping her wings. She is now in quarentine...I have power washed the entire coop and disinfected it and put pine shavings in i t ( I was using coastal hay). I have duramycine and a sulfer based meds on site but im afraid to use it on my layers. I dont want what ever this is to decimate my flock of 20 girls. Does anyone know what this might be ? and what can i use to combat it. And what would be the time to pull the eggs for if using meds? I have been told 14 to 21 days. Ive called about 15 vets but no one around here looks at chickens.....thanks so much

 

[THELMA]

its so awful when you cant find a vet that looks at chickens. I would say it sounds like either a respritory infection which needs abs. Tylan does not have an egg withdrawal period in the Uk I dont know about there. The other possibility is sour crop is her crop clear

 

[HK Bar Ranch]

Yes her crop is clear

 

[chicken grandma]

Sounds like a respiratory infection.
Could you treat them all with antibiotic in the water.
You could probably get that at the feed store and follow package directions.

 

[True Grit]

I'm sorry for your trouble. I don't know what your birds have but this website is pretty good. It lists all the respiratory diseases if you look through it. Good luck.
http://www.worldpoultry.net/diseases/infectious-laryngotracheitis-d84.html

 

[SimplySplendidSilkies]

Tyan 50 administered sub Q. 1 cc per adult bird for 3-5 days should do the trick. Vet Rx on the beak as well.
Good luck!

 

[TinyBirds]

So long as you don't ever sell any birds to other farms in the future, there is a pretty easy solution (though lots of posts on other threads will say to cull all your birds, but that is totally unnecessary if you don't plan on selling birds from your farm in the future). If you have a totally separate spot to put the sick ones, I would just keep the sick ones separated from the others. You should immediately disinfect the water container with bleach or oxine before refilling with clean water (for the birds in the healthy-pen). That will help keep the other birds from catching it. Then every night listen very closely to each bird in the well-pen, and look closely for any sign of running nose (especially the next few days since some might have already caught it and just not shown symptoms yet), and immediately move any birds with symptoms to the sick-bird area. Once the sick birds either die or recover completely (possibly taking a few weeks), I would go ahead and put them back together with the others and just keep watching closely each night for any others to get symptoms. The sick-pen could also benefit from a warm light to sleep under, and check for lice since that lowers their immune system.

The medication option: If you're particularly attached to one of the birds that gets sick, you can get the tylan 50 injectable $9.99 at feed store, and inject 0.5cc per day for 3 days into the meaty-leg-area of the sick bird. Once they are completely symptom-free you can wait a few weeks to put them back in the main pen, just to get the egg-withdrawal period out of the way before putting them back in the main pen. The tylan will help with just about anything respiratory, which is nice because it's virtually impossible to know exactly what type of infection it is, without necropsy and full tests which aren't really necessary if you don't plan to sell birds to other people.